Rookie 914 mistake - ran very low on oil

stephestrad · 10-02-2013, 06:01 PM

Hi all,
This is my first post and I'm sorry to say, an embarrassing one. I'm a new 914 owner (This is my first older car period.) and didn't realize how quickly one could burn through oil. I drove 2000 miles without thinking a think about it, then the dash board oil light started flickering on periodically. As car movement seemed to effect the light, I thought it was similar to my gas gauge, which moves when the car corners or takes hills. The second or third time experiencing this, the temperature gauge on the center console started to move up. Previously, the gauge had barely registered any movement, so this was a scare. I got to a service station as soon as I could, probably within 10 miles. The temperature gauge never got into the red, but it was too close for comfort. My car was very low on oil. After I put in one quart, the dipstick read just a hair over the minimum line. I continued driving home at that point. The oil light went off, but the temperate gauge still read pretty warm. Close to home, I ended up idling for 5-10 minutes in terrible city traffic and suddenly the gauge shot far into the red. I panicked, parked within a few minutes and turned the car off.
The next day, I was able to drive the 20 miles to my mechanic (good guy with who specializes in air cooled Porsches) without any issue and he said it seemed basically ok. He replaced the oil (but not the filter, as the supplier had sent him the wrong one), but couldn't find any outward signs of damage. The car is running smoothly and not making any odd sounds, but it's running warmer than before. On the return 90 mile leg from visiting my parents, the car started running very hot, nudging into the red. I slowed down to around 55 and the temperature gauge backed off a bit and I was able to make it home.
We're going to start by installing a real, calibrated, temperature gauge, then watch things. What is the worst case scenario here? Could I have done serious damage to the engine? Are there specific things we should I be looking at?
Apologies for the long posting.
Thanks much, from a very embarrassed newbie.
Stephen

1974 914 2.0
Pretty much stock.

Dave at Pelican Parts · Dave at Pelican Parts's Garage

Step 1: Check your fan. It's surprisingly easy for something to get sucked into the fan and block it.

Step 2: Check your oil again. You want it up at the full mark, not down at the lower mark. In fact, I run about a half-quart over "full" for autocrossing, to help keep the oil pickup submerged in oil during longer corners.

Step 3: Check for oil leaks. If your engine no longer has the pulley for the thermostat cable on the left side of the crankcase (down under the tin), put a bolt in the hole--it goes all the way through into the sump, and quite a bit of oil will leak out of there.

--DD

TheCabinetmaker · 10-03-2013, 10:31 AM

the oil light is an oil pressure light it illuminates when pressure drops very low. this can happen with extremely warm oil that is thin when engine sped is low like at idle. the light may illuminate with plenty of oil if you corner very hard.

the temperature gage need not be replaced if you want numbers, simply get a thermocouple (many digital multimeters have this feature) that can be stuck donw the dip stick hole make sure the thermocouple is long enough to go as deep as the dip stick. With the engien hot, park it and take a measurement (recommend you drive with the dipstick, only put in the thermocouple when you shut down) then mark the cars gage with a sharpie pen to indicate the temperature you read on the thermocouple. as the engine cools, keep taking measurements, and mark the cars gage. no reason to buy a different gage, and besides, the new gage with numbers may not be accurate anyway.
You can test the thermocouple for accuracey in ice water and in boiling water

make sure you are using the right wieght oil , in mild to hot climates a thicker 20W-50 oil is often used as thse motors do tend to run hot, avoid gas saving thin oils like 10W-30 unless your in very cold snowy winter conditions.

rather then get a new oil temprature gage, spend the money on an oil pressure gage. that will help youslect the right wieght oil, serve to indicate if you run low on oil (pressure will drop, specially in cornering) and will also indicate too hot oil as oil pressure will drop if too hot. If I had only one gage in the 914 it would be an oil pressure gage.

these older cars do tend to leak or burn more oil than new cars, make a habbit of oil level checks at each gas tank refill as a minimum. always keep the oil at the top mark , dont let it go low at all, the bottom mark should be conidered a point at which the car should not be driven. however corniering hard will starve you of oil so watch the pressure gage which you will now install for signs of that.
always carry a quart or two of oil in the trunk, then you wont have to drive a low oil car to go buy some.

like said above make sure the fan inlet is clear, with engine off! stick yoru hand in the fan inlet and feel around for leaves, rags, duct tape etc.. never leave towels or use duct tape which can come loose in the engine bay, else it gets sucked into the fan.

also these cars need frequent valve adjustment checks, every 3000 miles, (thats when the oil and filter should be changed) and the spark plugs wont last 25,000 miles either, replace then at about 6000 miles. that is the nature of older cars, they need more care than a brand new toyota.

also dont use a FRAM orange can of death oil filter, very poorly made, had the insides come loose on two of them, get a Mann or Mahle german filter they are superior to FRAM.

Never ignore the oil warning light.

stephestrad · 10-03-2013, 05:16 PM

Thank you both very much. The oil is currently a little over the top line. I'll check the fan and the the opening/thermostat cable tonight. I do have a small leak around the coil. We'll look into that a bit more.
The oil pressure gauge was my mechanic's second suggestion. Perhaps we'll just get them both in a the same time. If I can track down a thermocouple I'll definitely test it that way, even if I get a gauge with numbers. It sounds like I'll need to calibrate it anyways. I'll also look into the valve adjustment and make sure to get a new, proper filter.
Thanks again. I'll get on these leads.
And yes, I will never again ignore the oil warning light!

Patrick3000 · 10-06-2013, 04:42 PM

Order a new filter from our host and change the oil again. Any particles are trapped in your filter and it should be replaced.

stephestrad · 10-08-2013, 07:22 AM

Yeah, I was wondering if my overheating of the engine could have created any bits and pieces that are now floating about in the engine. I was picturing something akin to caramelized residue in the bottom of a sauté pan. Could I have have so cooked the oil that something is clogged and the system is unable to fully circulate? Apologies for any stupid questions. I'm learning as I go. And I have a loooong way to go.
I have several Mahle OC-28s arriving from Pelican Parts any day now. We'll change the oil again this weekend while we're digging into the other items mentioned above.
Thanks much.

Dave at Pelican Parts · Dave at Pelican Parts's Garage

If you're worried about sludge or coked-up oil, drain it. And pull the sump plate off the bottom of the motor to clean it and the pickup screen out. (Remember, though--only 9 lb-ft on the retaining nut; more can break the crankcase!!!!)

Do the same if you're worried about metal debris. You can inspect the oil that comes out and look for little chunks caught in the strainer as well.

--DD

stephestrad · 10-12-2013, 04:28 PM

- New temperature gauge and sender installed, and working. I wanted to get it warm quickly, so I kept it in 4th, running +/- 4000 rpms, for about 20 minutes on the highway while driving home and it got up to about 220 degress. The temperature backed off a little when I eased off and dropped to around 200 on surface streets. I'm still concerned about longer drives (that's when it pushed into the red recently), but I can't test that this weekend.
- Oil is changed and new filter installed. My mechanic felt ok with the cleanness of of the oil, so we didn't clean the sump. There are no more visible leaks and i still have a good oil level.
- Checked the air intake fan and it was clear. However, the sound-dampening, engine bay firewall pad (which was already starting to slump off) had fallen down pretty far. I had to move it to get to the fan. My mechanic thought that alone could have been the overheating culprit as it was more or less draped over the intake area. We talked about it and we're thinking the oil running low might have been coincidental, not the cause of the overheating.

I'm going to drive and watch carefully. Planning on taking it to the Alameda autocross next week, so we'll see what happens there. If it's still running hot we'll look into the valves, the oil pressure gauge (thought that looks ok for now) and perhaps pull the sump after all.

Dave, Karl and Monsieur Cabinetmaker -- thank you all so much! I'll post again if the issue isn't resolved.

seventythree · 10-12-2013, 08:33 PM

Which new gage and sender did you install to be able to read oil temp in degrees?
My oil temp gage is lazy in movement (no more than 1/4" movement max) as well.
I'm trying to figure out if my oil temp is staying low or the temp gage/sender is bad.

stephestrad · 10-12-2013, 10:31 PM

I ordered the VDO Temperature Gauge (310-012-M82) and Temperature Sending Unit (323-055-M82) from this site. They are designed to work together. You get a pretty good idea of your engine's heat, but it's not a digital readout or anything.

I haven't yet been able to find a thermocouple, so I can't comment on the new gauge's accuracy. That said, I'm assuming it's pretty close.

A side note. The diameter of the new gauge is slightly smaller than that of the original gauge. It doesn't quite fill out the rubber sleeve/bezel housing (designed to then slide into the center console). As I wanted to start reading the temperature asap, we simply built up the gauge's plastic casing with a couple of layers of electrical tape, then slipped it into the rubber sleeve. It's certainly not concourse ready, but it's holding well and (for the short term) doesn't look half bad.

TheCabinetmaker · 10-13-2013, 07:38 AM

Yup, tape will work to fit the gage in the center console. you really should invest in an oil pressure gage. that will tell you if bearing damage was done by the low oil and will give you further warning of future low oil situations.
If I was me, and I am, remove that firewall padding. early cars did not have that terrible stuff. I think they added it around year 1973 or so. my 1970 and 1972 cars never had it, don't even have the clips to hold it. however every 914 that I owned that did have that fire wall padding and a few friends cars too that had it all got rust issues because water got behind the padding and rust formed right thru the lower fire wall near the bottom of the padding. and also as you have found the padding can slump over and block cooling air. so remove that stuff, it was a bad idea from the factory. this will also give you a cleaner engine bay! on some cars the rust was so bad, the fire wall eaten thru that water would get on the floor boards.

you also can add a screen over the air intake on the blower, you can find a screen on VW busses with type IV motors (later Bay Window and early Vanagon) the screen attaches by three screws on the fan housing. I and some friends have done this on all our 914's this helps prevent leaves and junk form getting sucked into the blower and then stuck on the cylinder and head cooling fins, where it is near impossible to remove with out disassembly. you can kind of see if you have junk stuck on the fins by looking thru the spark plug access holes in the cooling tin. use a flash light and small mirror to gain best view.

stephestrad · 10-13-2013, 08:57 AM

How much louder would the car be without the firewall padding? Thanks for the tip on the screen. I'll start looking around for one.

Regarding the oil pressure gauge, I'll need to install it in the center console. Would you replace the clock or the volt meter? (I know, you're going to say the temperature gauge. ;-) )

Would you use the 80 or 150 psi model? Dual or single sender?

TheCabinetmaker · 10-13-2013, 01:53 PM

well I'd give up the clock, for the oil pressure. however if your handy you can cut out a new center console out of some thin plywood, and get some black vinyl and make a new console face with four holes in any arrangement you think looks good, then you can have four gages or even five (ampmeter) or six or seven... My friend did that and it looks very nice and totally functional he even added a cylinder temperature gage and an air/fuel mixture gage. easy project.

for a stock four cylinder car the 80 psi max gage is nice, I have that one. give a little better resolution and I have never maxed it out.

the dual sendor allows you to retain the oil idiot light, nice to have , usually costs a tad bit more but I like them. that all a dual snedor is, it has two terminal, one for the stock idiot light (on/off switch) and the variable gage output.

When you install, be sure the sender is grounded. The metal clamp serves that purpose.

seventythree · 10-15-2013, 06:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stephestrad

I ordered the VDO Temperature Gauge (310-012-M82) and Temperature Sending Unit (323-055-M82) from this site. They are designed to work together. You get a pretty good idea of your engine's heat, but it's not a digital readout or anything.

Is the new sending unit a direct screw-in replacement for the OE?

I intend to setup a bench test to graph temp vs. output of the OE gage and sending unit. I can use my own gage but need to source a sending unit. Would you be willing to lend me yours?

stephestrad · 10-15-2013, 07:22 AM

The part is a direct screw-in replacement. It's threaded into my oil pan in the same location as the older unit. We'd need to get my car to you (no idea where that is), jack it up, drain the pan, etc. It sounds like a lot of work to borrow a $16.50 part. :-)

seventythree · 10-15-2013, 08:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stephestrad

The part is a direct screw-in replacement. It's threaded into my oil pan in the same location as the older unit. We'd need to get my car to you (no idea where that is), jack it up, drain the pan, etc. It sounds like a lot of work to borrow a $16.50 part. :-)

No, what I meant was, can I borrow the old one you took off?

stephestrad · 10-15-2013, 09:15 AM

Ah! Ha ha. My mistake. That makes more sense. I left it at my mechanic's. I could call and see if he still has it. I didn't think to bring it back with me.
The bigger issue is that he's about 20-30 minutes away and I don't get out there unless I have work to be done. You're welcome to borrow it, but it may take a while before it's available.

seventythree · 10-15-2013, 12:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stephestrad

Ah! Ha ha. My mistake. That makes more sense. I left it at my mechanic's. I could call and see if he still has it. I didn't think to bring it back with me.
The bigger issue is that he's about 20-30 minutes away and I don't get out there unless I have work to be done. You're welcome to borrow it, but it may take a while before it's available.

Yes, please check & see if he can ship it out to me directly. I can PayPal you, or him, $5 to cover postage.